1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the structure of plasma display panels.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2006-214500, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some conventional surface-discharge type AC plasma display panels (hereinafter referred to as “a PDP”), a protective layer is provided on a dielectric layer overlying row electrode pairs arranged on the inner face of the front glass substrate. The protective layer comprises a lamination of a thin-film magnesium oxide layer deposited by vapor deposition or by sputtering, and a crystalline magnesium oxide layer including a magnesium oxide single-crystal produced by a vapor-phase oxidization technique.
Examples of such conventional PDPs include one disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2006-59780.
The conventional PDP can exhibit excellent discharge characteristics because the crystalline magnesium oxide layer forming part of the protective layer for the dielectric layer includes magnesium oxide single-crystal produced by a vapor-phase oxidization technique so as to offer an improvement in discharge characteristics, such as a reduction in discharge delay and an increase in the discharge probability in the PDP.
However, in such conventional PDPs, the protective layer on the dielectric layer is formed of MgO which is alkaline earth oxides, and thus cannot adequately fulfill the function as the electron emission layer. In particular, when the protective layer is provided in a PDP with the discharge space filled with a discharge gas with a high xenon partial pressure, the PDP cannot adequately benefit from the effects of reducing the discharge voltage and improving the luminous efficiency.
As recent improvements in the high resolution of the PDP are increasing the number of display lines, a greater improvement in the discharge characteristics such as a reduction in power consumption and an increase in the luminous efficiency is strongly desired.